Golf Show to launch at EventCity in Manchester

The Golf Show Group will launch its first consumer golfing show at EventCity in Manchester next year.

The organiser claims it will be the first golfing event launched in the North West and hopes to attract 10,000 people to its inaugural edition. The show will take up Halls 1 and 2 at EventCity and runs from 5 to 7 April 2013.

The Golf Show Group had previously held its Birmingham show in an April timeslot. MD Damian Benstead told EN it had not secured dates at The NEC for 2013 but didn’t rule out returning to the Midlands at a later date, claiming there was room to hold shows in both places.

“Part of the reason for our launch in Manchester is that the NEC wasn’t getting many people from the Yorkshire region,” he explained. “Access to EventCity across the Pennines is so easy and there’s a big market there we can cater to.

“Manchester has been on our radar for a number of years as a location as it’s right by Cheshire, which is great golfing country.”

The new Manchester edition will also allow it to draw in more visitors and supporters from Yorkshire and Northern England, Benstead said, adding its main retail partner, Express Golf, is from West Yorkshire.

Other reasons for choosing EventCity included ample car parking, motorway access and its proximity to the Trafford Centre retail mall.

“Our audience is male-dominated, so being close to the Trafford Centre offers lots of benefits in terms of giving families different things to do,” Benstead added.

The Golf Show Group will also hold its eighth London show from 9 to 11 November at Earls Court after relocating to the West London venue last year. It expects to fill 6,500sqm.

“Our London show is getting lots of support and we’ve confirmed our first ever headline sponsor this year, talkSport,” Benstead said.

EventCity director of sales Sarah Mills welcomed the Golf Show as a highly-anticipated event for Manchester.

“We have been hungry to provide something of this nature to the region’s mass golf-enthusiast audience and 2013 will mark the start of satisfying that appetite,” she said. “We have every confidence it will be one of the most successful events on our calendar.”